Radicalized Muslims do operate and recruit in Toronto and one Islamic leader warns we shouldnt be surprised by news of more nefarious terror plots in the future.

There are a lot of people in our community that are a little rigid, Muhammad Robert Heft, of the Paradise Forever Islamic Centre, said Wednesday. Not thousands but hundreds.

Hundreds?

In a week when one GTA resident, along with a Montrealer, have been charged by the RCMP in a terror plot to murder innocent people on a passenger train, its a troubling detail.

But its not new for Heft, a Muslim convert who has a history of working with radical Muslim youth, including being a court-appointed counsellor for one of the convicted Toronto 18 members.

So the alleged train attack plot did not surprise him.

And nor will news of other disturbing conspiracies in the future.

I think we are have our idiots like any community so its not one or two. It wont be the first wont be the last, he said in an interview with both myself and The Sun News Networks Rebecca Thompson.

We asked do you hear about such things regularly?

He nodded his head.

Oh yeah, some of these mosque people are really emotional (and) what goes on around the world is an easy sell, he said. They buy into the narrative that its us versus them. But are they going to act on it? Its like the KKK, as long as they are not burning anybody at the cross, they are still allowed to live in America.

Its still shocking to hear.

His involvement with RCMP community outreach and in the de-radicalization of young people has provided him insight into those inside some mosques who are recruiting young people to go down the dark corridors of radical Islam.

He said he had it happen to him.

The 40-year-old Heft grew up in Milton where he the Lutheran Church. Later, as an adult, he said he worked at CN Rail before going overseas to teach English.

Hes a character  laughing, smiling and cracking jokes. Hes also a Maple Leafs fan.

But he understands how one can go down the wrong path since they tried to recruit him.

I was a little radical myself, a little over zealous, he said. Of course, they didnt get me where I wanted to commit acts of violence, but it was heading in that direction.

He said he was told we are the special and chosen ones. I started asking them a lot of questions and they gave up on me and said, Either follow me or leave me.

Heft said this experience helped him later while working as a liaison with the RCMP to reach out and try to help families with young men who they fear are becoming too hard-core and fundamentalist.

People like Raed Jasers father, Mohamed.

The man rented an apartment in Hefts home and had mentioned his concern of son Raed.

He felt his son was too rigid, maybe a little too self-righteous, said Heft.

The terror-related charges against Raed Jaser have not been proven in court.

His father is a stand-up man who, as you saw, said, Let the RCMP do their job. He would have turned his son in to police, Heft said.

A so far unknown Toronto imam is said to have done just that.

It was the proper move but not everyone in the community will see it that way. Heft knows this since he gets push-back from some Muslims for his counter terrorism work with police.

These guys see me as a traitor because I am not down with their interpretation of Islam so I am suddenly not a Muslim.

But, he said, he is a Muslim like the majority of others here who abhor the allegations laid out by the Mounties this week.

No Muslim, he said, should tolerate or turn a blind eye to violent jihad.

Throw the book at them, said Heft. I think we are too soft on crime sometimes.

I think we can assume that "GTA" means greater Toronto area? If a newspaper is going to post articles on the World Wide Web, they should do readers the courtesy of identifying their acronyms. NOt everyone on the Web is from Toronto. No wonder journalism is dead.

(I know it's picky, but it's a pet peeve.)

5
posted on 04/25/2013 8:29:29 AM PDT
by newheart
(The worst thing the Left ever did was to convince the world it was not a religion.)

Yes, I believe that GTA means Greater Toronto Area. Remember the mindset of Toronto media, even more self-centred and self-righteous than NYC media. They consider ‘Tranna’ to be the Centre of the Universe, so assume the world should just understand and accept that as a ‘fact’. My personnal view of ‘Tranna’ is that if God ever gave the world an enema, ‘Tranna’ would be where the bottle was placed!

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